The Impact of Shifted Runway Markings

[MedwedianPresident]

7 hours ago, suicidejunkie said:

Most of my spaceplanes have landed from the east, because they make a U-turn over booster bay to bleed off speed and altitude after giving Mt. Whoopstooshort a lot of clearance.

The one time I landed from the west was early on when I had to do a go-around, and that was the fourth approach that flight.

I understand that you may be used to a different approach direction but 90% of all KSP players usually land from the west. It's like with right handed and left handed people - because the majority is right handed, most handheld tools or devices are made for right handed people.

 

Would be happy to see a mod which changes the runway though.

 

Another theory would be that the runway used to be shorter and was extended in the eastern direction at some point during the history of the KSC to accommodate larger airplanes which would require a longer braking distance.

[The_Rocketeer]

8 hours ago, MedwedianPresident said:

Another theory would be that the runway used to be shorter and was extended in the eastern direction at some point during the history of the KSC to accommodate larger airplanes which would require a longer braking distance.

The runway did  used to be shorter. Then I upgraded it, twice.

[AlamoVampire]

On August 8, 2016 at 3:36 AM, KerikBalm said:

Is this what your are referring to?

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Indeed it is. Was on mobile and could link the pic lol

[Sereneti]

On 2.8.2016 at 7:29 AM, W. Kerman said:

Runways are bad, use the launchpad, unless of course, you are one of those arcane SSTO voodoo masters...

i prefer, for manual flight. spaceplanes...

[something]

And as you can see, the UK is not using the multiple stripe markers. Instead all the markers are replaced with one-stripe markers, except the aiming point which is still thicker than the other stripes.

 

See also wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Runway

[Randox]

Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like the 4 markings on each end of the runway are symmetrical to each others. The markers aren't equally spaced, but both ends of the runway are identical. It's only the middle(ish) 3 markings that are clearly not centered on the middle of the runway. I'd say the right most of that group seems to be in the middle of the runway, while the other two seem to be lined up with the other two access roads.

So no, the markers clearly don't obey Earth rules, but they don't seem to be random either. The markings at each end of the runway are consistent with each other, so it seems reasonable to conclude that they do have meaning, while the markings in the center of the runway may have an entirely different meaning relating to access roads, or may be equivalent landing guides for planes that don't need the full length runway (guides for planes landing around halfway. Or has been suggested, maybe they didn't bother repainting everything when you upgrade.

Also, I do wish the Runway followed the curve of the planet. It occurs to me that by making it linear the way they have, the runway actually falls away from you while your trying to land, since it is effectively lower in the middle. Besides, runways in real life don't seem to be level either, I've seen plenty of them that were clearly built over gently rolling hills with seemingly no effort whatsoever to level the terrain first. Besides, landing gear is so tough that I have literally hit the ground hard enough to explode the top level runway without doing any damage to my aircraft (today, in 1.1, with no problems placing landing gear whatsoever).

Edited August 9, 2016 by Randox

[something]

20 hours ago, Randox said:

Correct me if I am wrong, but it looks like the 4 markings on each end of the runway are symmetrical to each others. The markers aren't equally spaced, but both ends of the runway are identical. It's only the middle(ish) 3 markings that are clearly not centered on the middle of the runway. I'd say the right most of that group seems to be in the middle of the runway, while the other two seem to be lined up with the other two access roads.

The inner two-stripe markers and the single one stripe marker are somehow close to the SPH taxi ways. Taxi ways are usually named something like "C","F2" or "AB" (pronounced Charlie, Foxtrotttwo or Alphabravo) and there are road signs at the intersections reading C, F2 or AB or whatever the taxi ways are called. Intersections themselves are marked by the yellow center lines (see here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxiway ). So, no I can't imagine any way those landing zone markers should refer to the taxi ways. Also, there clearly are two-stripe markers referring to the landing zones, so re-using the symbol to refer to taxi ways would be a bit misleading. As if you drove with your car and didn't know whether the sign indicated a speed limit or the distance to the next city....

20 hours ago, Randox said:

So no, the markers clearly don't obey Earth rules, but they don't seem to be random either. The markings at each end of the runway are consistent with each other, so it seems reasonable to conclude that they do have meaning, while the markings in the center of the runway may have an entirely different meaning relating to access roads, or may be equivalent landing guides for planes that don't need the full length runway (guides for planes landing around halfway. Or has been suggested, maybe they didn't bother repainting everything when you upgrade.

 I assume, that most people, including the programmers/level designers at that time didn't even know what those markings were referring to and how they "had" to be painted on the runway...

And concerning the runway damage caused by the landing gear - I heard of that, but haven't reproduced that behaviour. I normally "try" to land with vertical speeds below the destruction threshold of the wheels (below 11 m/s).

[XB-70A]

It's sure that is incorrect but I don't really see the problem as KSP don't offer us any ways to realize a precision approach and landing. Doing it in manual I just take the FDM as a reference like if a PAPI was available and touch on it or shortly after when I am with the fatties and the ones with poor gliding performances. Like this an approach RWY 09 or 27 stay the same.

For my part I use to land 27 most of the time due to an overshoot addiction, and also that if I need to loose energy by maneuvers and abuse of it (which happen nearly all the time due to the keyboard input precision) I still can try a water landing.

[something]

At least somebody who knows what a PAPI actually does :) Didn't want to mention that as there already was too much "not a simulator" talk. Also, I thought that having an ILS indicator somewhere might be nice as well. So far I am using the MJ runway marker to land but that one doesn't really give you a nice slope when flying manually. As for landing, I tend to use 27 when coming from orbit for efficiency reasons. When flying around the KSC I usually take the better option - i.e. I  also land on 09. If testing goes wrong you can always use the extra long 27L/09R ;)